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The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

danielhomola.com

91–100 of 435 posts

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#91
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI automating (almost) all white collar work will concentrate all those salaries into the hands of a very small group of people. BTW the number of plumbers who become multimillionaires is vanishingly small, while the number of SWE who have in the last 15 years is enormous by comparison.

Neither statement is true, unfortunately. The reports that you read in the media don't reflect the state of the world. In the US, most plumbers and SWE make between 100-200K. The way to wealth is to start one's own business. Hence, hard work and character.

> In the US, most plumbers and SWE make between 100-200K.

$62,970 per year is not $100K-$200K

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/plumbers...

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither statement is true, unfortunately. The reports that you read in the media don't reflect the state of the world. In the US, most plumbers and SWE make between 100-200K. The way to wealth is to start one's own business. Hence, hard work and character.

People will charge less when there are more people fighting for the same plumbing roles no?

I hope so, plumbers are damn expensive

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#93
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How does AI truly benefit the average joe? Automated production of goods and services means more goods and services to go around. From cheaper prices on all of the things people already buy to unlocking new classes of products like actually useful robotic helpers. Increased pace of development and reduced cost will make many niche products economically viable, essentially the maker movement on steroids.

Cheaper prices don't matter at all when no one has any income due to all of the jobs being automated

but elon said he would share the excesses with us!

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#94
post #16

The future (if we keep using money to allocate resources) is something akin to feudalism but worse. If you are born at the bottom you will never rise to the top. It's bleak. Even worse, your labor will not be needed, nor will your intellectual abilities. There will be a few well off people with capital. The data centers will be guarded by automatons and drones. Everyone else will essentially live in a parallel econom…

End state of capitalism is Egyptian pharaohs, a few pyramid architects, and a lot of slaves and whips.

The only thing to counter this would be some sort of geopolitical Darwinism, where societies that invest more in their populations would have healthier and stronger societies and militaries.

But nuclear Armageddon prevents that from being any sort of slim hope.

The current American political climate of extreme service to the ultra rich, vast degradation of the democratic institutions, and infrastructure for a complete surveillance state is bleak.

The only hope I have for some sort of human structure in this technological wasteland that might win out is the fact that AI and the tech algorithms in general have taken the demographic collapse associated with urbanization and vastly magnified it.

We're already seeing this in places like China. If you have too much centralized control and too much limitation of freedom, The population will simply refuse to procreate, and your country dies a slow death over 50 years.

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#95

The dude has obviously never met a multimillionaire owner of an auto body shop, a house demolition business, or a plumber. Did they do well in high school calc class? No. Are they richer than the author? Yes Blowing up the cognitive hierarchy is a gift that AI gives us. Let's move into an age where hard work and character matter more than your SAT score at 17.

Why do you think a high SAT score doesn't need "hard work and character"?

[deleted]

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#98
post #16

The future (if we keep using money to allocate resources) is something akin to feudalism but worse. If you are born at the bottom you will never rise to the top. It's bleak. Even worse, your labor will not be needed, nor will your intellectual abilities. There will be a few well off people with capital. The data centers will be guarded by automatons and drones. Everyone else will essentially live in a parallel econom…

Seems like if we want to avoid dystopia, our options are: 1. Full-blown socialism 2. Georgism Georgism may have been right all along!

Given that rich people often push Georgism, it looks like a trojan horse. Only rich people will be able to afford land.

3. Push back against AI, do not accept it as inevitable. Treat it like cigarettes or leaded fuel.

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#99

A rebuttal: the institutional and experiential barriers to wealth generation can be overcome with AI unlike any other technology before. Consider: someone wanting to start a business previously had to negotiate tremendous legal/compliance/technological hurdles. The prospect of going alone given these is very intimidating so most without wealth or connections didn't. Their good ideas languished. Now, everyone has a kn…

> Now, everyone has a knowledgeable and forgiving partner and guide.

Well, everyone who can afford the $500/month ultra max pro plan to access unlimited ad free LLMs

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#100
post #16

The future (if we keep using money to allocate resources) is something akin to feudalism but worse. If you are born at the bottom you will never rise to the top. It's bleak. Even worse, your labor will not be needed, nor will your intellectual abilities. There will be a few well off people with capital. The data centers will be guarded by automatons and drones. Everyone else will essentially live in a parallel econom…

The idealized future in my option has something like 1/1000th of the current population It’s thermodynamically impossible for 8-10Billon animals that have no satiation reflex and limited coordination capacity to live on a resource limited rock Absolute Best case future is what I wrote in 2025 which is basically humans living in care facilities managed by machines: https://kemendo.com/We%20All%20Slept%20Well.pdf

That is a strange ideal, and I am an environmental nutso myself.
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